At nearly forty pages, The Shadow, The Darkness
borders on novella. Rather than recapping plot, I'll make a quick cut
to a key section at the heart of this Ligotti lollapalooza about a
renegade academic, an artist and visionary named Grossvogel and his
extraordinary psychophysical experience.
The narrator recounts
past events. We learn Grossvogel collapsed during the opening of his
first art exhibit and the narrator took him to the hospital wherein he
received treatment. For some mysterious reason, thereafter Grossvogel
went missing for weeks. But Grossvogel makes his grand reappearance at
the gallery to lead the narrator and others in hauling away his old art.
And when this storefront of an art gallery opens an exhibit of his new
art, Grossvogel delivers a speech prior to the viewing.
Grossvogel
relates how his body was experiencing physical upheaval, the result of a
digestive disorder, and over time, progressively and insidiously, this
upheaval manifested on another level altogether, in the darkest aspect
of his being. “This period coincided with, and in fact was directly a
consequence of, my involvement with the creation of artworks – my
intense desire to make art, which is to say, my desire to do something and my desire to be something, that is, an artist.”
Grossvogel continues: “I was attempting during this period I speak of – and for that matter throughout my entire life - to make something with my mind, or by using my imagination or my creative faculties,
some force or function of what people would call a soul or a spirit or
simply a personal self.” And then the critical point: In the middle of
his physical agony he was overwhelmed by a startling revelation: such
things as “mind,” “imagination,” “creative faculties,” “soul,” “spirit,”
“personal self” are all nonsense and dreams, illusions, pure
fabrication.
What then is real? When Grossvogel opened his eye,
really opened his eyes, he could see things as they really are. “I found
that I could see how everything around me, including my own body, was
activated from within by this pervasive shadow, this all-moving
darkness....Before that night I had never experienced the world purely
by means of my organs of physical sensation, which are the direct point
of contact with that deep abyss of entity that I am calling the shadow,
the darkness.”
Grossvogel adds much detail, enough detail to
fill several pages. However, here's one important section I'll quote in
its entirety: "Everywhere I traveled I saw how the pervasive shadow, the
all-moving darkness, was using our world. Because this shadow,
this darkness has nothing of its own, no way to exist except as an
activating force or energy, whereas we have our bodies, we are only
our bodies, whether they are organic bodies or non-organic bodies,
human or non-human bodies, makes no difference - they are all simply
bodies and nothing but bodies, which no component whatever of a mind or a
self or a soul. hence the shadow, the darkness uses our world for what it needs to thrive upon. It has nothing except its activating energy, while we are
nothing except our bodies. This is why the shadow, the darkness causes
things to be what they would not be and to do what they would not do.
Because without the shadow inside them, the all-moving blackness
activating them, they would be only what they are - heaps of matter
lacking any impulse, any urge to flourish, to succeed in the world. This state of affairs should be called what it is - an absolute nightmare."
Another quick cut, this time to other highlights/themes/general ideas:
Lovecraft
Redux – The narrator on a new Grossvogel sculpture: “There appeared to
be a resemblance in its general outline to some kind of creature,
perhaps a grossly distorted version of a scorpion or a crab, since it
displayed more than a few clawlike extensions reaching out from a
central, highly shapeless mass. But it also appeared to have elements
poking upward, peaks, or horns that jutted at roughly vertical angles
and ended sometimes in a sharp point and sometimes in a soft, headlike
bulge.“ Of course, this brings to mind the hideous creature in H.P.'s The Call of Cthulhu. 
Medical
Reasons - A Mrs. Angela proclaims Grossvogel a complete fraud, citing
the real reason for his transformation: he was given massive doses of
drugs as part of his treatment at the hospital. Such a rational is so
predictable in our modern age: as everything was explained in terms of
psychology in the 20th century, so in our 21st century, any oddity or
deviation from the accepted norm will be explained in terms of biology
and neuroscience.
Sleight of Authorial Hand – To add an
additional layer of piquancy, Thomas Ligotti includes a character who is
preparing a treatise he refers to as An Investigation into the Conspiracy against the Human Race,
the title of a nonfiction book Ligotti himself eventually would write.
But here the character admits he's incapable of finishing his treatise.
The reasons why? For our author to tell.
A Last Word – One might think of boiling down The Shadow, The Darkness
into a philosophy, maybe even Ligotti's philosophy, but please keep in
mind this tale is a work of literature and, as such, transcends
philosophy. Art is too rich, too infused with magic, too far beyond the
reach of categories to be reduced or contained or subsumed by mere
concepts or ideas.
Some reviewers report reading The Shadow, The Darkness
has a hypnotic effect and, in a weird way, leaves one uplifted. I
agree. What I've written here is merely a faint echo of this work by
Thomas Ligotti. Read it or, if you've already read it, read it again. So
worth your time.
American author Thomas Ligotti, born 1953
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